Why do turtles have beaks instead of jaws like all their other reptilian brethren?
What good does it do them?
well, they DO have jaws just a beak rather then teeth. Its fine for grasping and tearing and swallowing chunks. Why this adaptation rather then teeth, such as in a croc, who eats the same way. I dont know.
Turtles aren’t really predators (unless you count the odd earthworm or two), they’re scavengers, so most of what they eat is pretty soft (dead things that fall into the water or onto the forest floor, etc). They don’t need teeth.
Really? A 150 lb alligator snapping turtle is a top of the
food chain (for a pond or river) predator. My father lost many baby ducks to one such beast and the turtle didn’t wait until the duckings died of “natural causes” before he “scavenged” them. He was the “natural cause”. See link below
The alligator snapper “beak” is plenty sharp without teeth and a large snapper can easily “snap” a broomstick in two.